Wireless telephony standards such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications have defined two sets of network scanning functionality for a wireless user equipment (UE) device depending on whether the device is located in its home country or not. These functions are set forth in the 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 23.122 Non-Access Stratum (NAS) Functions Related to Mobile Station (MS) in Idle Mode, incorporated by reference herein. Additional functionality currently being developed allows an operator to define a number of networks as equivalent to a home network associated with a UE device. Certain issues such as regulatory and procedural compliance can arise, however, where the UE device attempts to obtain service in an equivalent network that is provisioned in a foreign country.